Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of aiming devices for firearms.
Description of the Related Art
There are many commercially available aiming devices. These devices can, for example, be mounted on a handgun or on a rifle.
However, most of these devices cannot be used directly on a machine-gun. Indeed, the weapon recoil and the vibrations generated upon firing are such that, in most cases, the sight is damaged from the first burst of gunfire. Furthermore, some machine-guns are designed to be fixed on a marine, land or aerial vehicle generating additional vibrations and accelerations.
To partially solve these disadvantages is known U.S. Pat. No. 4,026,054 which describes an interface able to be fixed on a weapon and to be positioned between said weapon and a sight, said interface being able to damp the accelerations experienced by the sight upon firing and/or during moving of the vehicle on which the machine-gun is mounted.
Said interface comprises:    a first portion able to be fixed on a weapon,    a second portion movable with respect to the first portion,    spring-loaded means for damping the movement of the second portion with respect to the first portion,    an upper portion comprising means able to allow the fixing of a telescope or a camera,    means able to adjust the inclination of the upper portion with respect to the second portion.
Thus, upon firing, the weapon will move backwards with a significant acceleration while the spring-loaded damping means hold the sight, such that it experiences a lower acceleration with respect to that of the weapon.
Such a device is perfect for implementing an aiming device of a few tens of grams. However, it is not possible to use it for an aiming device with a weight of more than 500 grams. Indeed, in this case, it would be necessary to use springs of very large diameters, which would require the aiming device to be moved away from the weapon barrel, and thus a significant decrease of the short-distance accuracy.